


rampion

by cassandralied



Category: Runaways (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, F/M, King Arthur Elements, Rapunzel Elements, alternate universe - fairytale fusion, gert is a knight!! like she deserves, let's see if we can't get xavin in here somehow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27677278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandralied/pseuds/cassandralied
Summary: Victor Mancha is a damsel in a tower. Lucky for him, Sir Gertrude Yorkes and her trusty Deinonychus -- er, dragon are looking for a chance to prove themselves.Also featuring powerful magician Nico Minoru, runaway princess Molly Hayes, practically-magic-herself Karolina Dean, baby witch Klara Prast, local blacksmith Chase Stein, and the enchanted golem that calls itself Doombot.
Relationships: Gertrude Yorkes/Victor Mancha, Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	rampion

Victor’s been in the tower for as long as he can remember.

He’s not human, he knows that much. His father built him as a weapon for a coming war, but until Victor reaches eighteen, it’s the tower. He’s read every book in there a hundred times, and the room is small and shabby, but at least he has his view of the forest.

There’s a sort of safety inside the tower -when he’s alone, at least. When Ultron isn’t there, barking orders at him. Trying to make him the perfect assassin.

But all of that -the safety, the contentment, the status quo -vanishes on the day he sees the girl and her dragon.

“Hey!”

Victor’s lying on his bed, one arm over his eyes, trying to tell himself a story when he hears the shout. Hesitantly, he walks towards the window. It comes again. “Hey!”

Victor looks out the window. “Are you talking to me?”

There’s a girl outside, a girl who looks nothing like the princesses and maidens in his illustrated books. She has dark brown hair cut to her shoulders, and she wears a corset with trousers and heavy boots. Standing beside her is a dragon, with yellow eyes and a sharp-toothed grin.

The girl raises an eyebrow. “Who else would I be talking to?”  
“What are you doing here?” Victor calls down. “Nobody knows about this place. Ul—I mean, my father, told me so.”

“Stumbled upon it by accident,” the girl says. “Old Lace and I were looking for damsels to rescue. Are you in need of rescuing?”  
Victor looks around the cramped, tiny room filled with diagrams on how to best stop the human heart. “Yeah,” he says. “I think I am.”

Old Lace the dragon doesn’t have wings, so the girl —she tells him that her name is Sir Gertrude of Yorkes, but he can call her Gert —has to clamber up the tower carefully, using loose stones as footholds. Every time a stone shifts, Victor cringes, but Gert doesn’t seem afraid.

When she reaches the top, Victor reaches out to help pull her over the ledge and into the room. The touch, just the tiny bit of human contact, seems to burst all his blood vessels.   
“How do you get food in here if you can’t leave?” Gert asks.

“My guardian brings me what I need,” Victor replies evasively. He feels Gert’s judgmental stare on the scattered books, the drawings, the untucked bedding. On everything Victor hasn't said, refuses to say.  
But Gert bows, then, and presses a kiss to the back of Victor’s hand. He blushes. She grins. “Ready, fair maiden?”

The climb back down the tower is uncomfortable, to say the least, but they both make it down, Victor catching Gert when she slips the last few feet. He likes the feeling of her in his arms.

* * *

Gert and Old Lace take Victor back to their campsite, where a witch dressed in black crouches over a dwindling fire.

“I sent you to sell a cow and you come back with magic beans,” the witch says, annoyed.

“A cow?” Victor repeats dumbly.Old Lace licks her lips.

“There’s no cow, girl,” Gert says, and then, “Nico, this is Victor. He’s my damsel.”

The odd possessive lilt in her voice hits him harder than it perhaps should have. It's kind of thrilling.  
“Hi,” Victor says. 

Nico stands. She’s dressed exactly like a fairytale witch, in a ruffled black dress with many petticoats and high-heeled black boots. Her frown is considering. “Hi, damsel.”

“Victor’s fine, actually.”

A man emerges from the woods, his arms full of wood.

“How did it take you this long to find wood, Chase?” Nico snaps, whirling on him. Victor’s grateful for the distraction. “Are we not in a fucking forest?”

“I didn’t want to touch anything cursed,” Chase defends himself. “We’re not all witches.”

“I’m a _magician,”_ Nico snarls, her lip curling.

"Could have fooled me."

  
“Easy, Mom and Dad,” Gert says dryly. She’s younger than both of them. Victor is too. “Chase, Victor. Victor, Chase.”

“Gert rescued me from my tower,” Victor says before Gert can say the word damsel again.

Chase nods. “Yeah, she has a thing for damsels in distress.”

_Damn._


End file.
